Lord High Executioner Cerf

Sir Christopher of Cerf will now allow you an audience:

Still, the tension between state and local control in New Jersey is nothing new, and both the legal critics and some local school leaders yesterday were cautious about the extent of the state’s authority politically as well.

Elisabeth Ginsburg, president of the Glen Ridge Board of Education, has been an outspoken leader among suburban schools, and she said the new accountability system follows a trend in this administration.

“I don’t think there is any argument that we need reforms, but I’m not sure it is with a top-down approach that is without community support and accountability,” she said.

Citing new teacher evaluation systems that would be dictated by the state as well, she said: “We are moving to a situation where there is a lot of power in the hands of individuals over whom the local voters have little political control.”

ACTING Sir Christopher - appointed and unconfirmed - and his liege, Emperor Christie, lay claim to the ability to close schools, evaluate teachers, take away tenure, force charters down local districts' throats, withhold data as they see fit, withhold names of decision makers as they see fit, and continue to denigrate the serfs.

Because we have a "crisis" of schools sitting at the top of the nation:

Uh... ACHIEVEMENT GAP! ACHIEVEMENT GAP! (Yeah, not so much)

Listen, if you have a problem with this, you obviously don't care about the kids. Everyone knows we have to choose between democracy and helping poor children; we simply can't have both. So decrees our new royalty.

It's good to be the king!